The role of the teacher in the creation of a positive learning environment is pivotal.

McDonald refers to a quality learning

environment with providing a safe learning community where students academic, social and emotional lives are enhanced.
This coincides with Groundwater-Smiths theory that teachers work now encompasses all facets of children lives
incorporating social stability and their overall welfare into the teachers job. They continue on to state that this has been a
major recent change and that over the last twenty years their has been a growing focus on social, emotional and cultural
dimensions of student learning. This can be said, to be groundbreaking and certainly took too long for teachers to encompass
these ideologies regularly into their teaching. Furthermore, McDonald affirms that management plans and learner
engagement should be at the forefront of every teachers education plan coinciding with child development principles.
Continuing on, Groundwater-Smith illuminates the notion that teachers are now under strict guidelines in regards to ethics
and the student-teacher relationship. Working with children checks have now become standard among those wishing to teach
children and pre-service teachers, these mandatory checks help to uphold a strong code of ethics with which Australia is now
conducting. This comes at a time where the digital age has begun to takeover and student-teacher relationships and student-
student relationships have begun to expand past school hours more than ever before. As a result of this promotion of
programs that endorse safe and responsible use of technologies and devices to help create the safe schooling environment all
teachers should strive to generate.

Throughout my four-week placement at West Wallsend High School I aimed to create an

environment through my teaching that allowed all students to feel safe and apart of each
lesson. This artefact helps to highlight the importance of creating this type of environment
for all students to be able to learn to the best of their ability. Whether it be through the use
of Working with childrens checks, checking of courts or fields for foreign or dangerous
objects prior to a practical class or just talking to the students and making sure they are OK
helps to support students participation and maintain student safety. Further, the above
paragraph from my position statement touches on ICT safety, the dangers involved and the
important ethical considerations that need to be understood. Finally, through the use of
skills learnt across a variety of courses classroom management lessons and information
helped me to manage any challenging behavior that was come across, however most of the
students were great to work alongside.